Open Art History

Open Art History is a proposed project to gather and distributereproductions of artworks and art historical documents. Art is a form ofknowledge, and art history is a way of presenting that knowledge. Accessto high quality reproductions of images of art and to literature & dataconcerning art history is of great value to artists, critics, arthistorians, art theorists and educators.

The initial aim of the project is to identify standards for data and image formats for projects.

The pilot project for Open Art History will be Open Hogarth. This is dueto the availability and comparative ease of reproduction of Hogarth’swork, its social and historical relevance, its art historicalimportance, and its popularity with the general public. Hogarth’sliterary nature is also a link to the Open Literature project, and hisplace in the history of the copyright of art makes him an interestingsubject for a Free Knowledge project.